Liriano holds the key

THE 3-BLOG LOUNGE:Francisco Liriano pitches Wednesday, and every playoff contender in the American League will be watching. All of the games carry huge significance at this time of the year, but Liriano’s start against the A’s will deliver strong messages in all directions.

If Liriano shuts down the A’s, polishing off a series sweep, the Angels — pitiful as they have been — will have real hope to catch Oakland during that 7-games-in-10-days stretch to end the season. The A’s are reeling right now, and a victory over Liriano would set things straight for a big homestand opening up against the White Sox on Friday.

If Liriano shows that he hasn’t recovered from his elbow problems, the Twins will be disheartened. They have Johan Santana, and young Matt Garza, and a ton of heart, but they’re counting on Liriano to make a serious push — one that could even find them winning the AL Central, a notion believed to be impossible a month ago.

The Tigers and White Sox will be watching just as closely — as will the Yankees, for that matter, with all the postseason implications involved. I don’t have the A’s television schedule in front of me, and apologies for that, but there’s no way it will be aired back to the Bay Area. Day game, weekday, A’s, on the road? Never. The minor leagues of broadcasting.

Strange quote from Frank Thomas after the Monday-night loss: “We’re not going to quit. No way are we going to quit.” Jeez, let’s hope not. Who said anything about that? The A’s are in first place, for crying out loud. You might quit when you’re 8 games out with 10 to play, although that wouldn’t be excusable, either … Terrible official scoring in the Metrodome on Tuesday night. In the first inning, Eric Chavez singled to center — period. Base hit. Torii Hunter, who should have done a better job keeping the ball in front of him, basically escorted it all the way to the center-field wall with a lazy pickup attempt. That’s not a triple, ever. Single, E-8 … Give Jay Payton credit for a gutsy decision to drop a two-strike bunt in the sixth, but that was no hit. It was poorly played by pitcher Pat Neshek, who had way more time than he thought. Error-1 … And speaking of bad baseball: Kudos to A’s broadcaster Ray Fosse, busting the Twins’ Nick Punto for his senseless slide into first base on a routine grounder. As Fosse pointed out, there’s NO WAY you gain speed by leaving the ground and diving headfirst into the bag. Nor does it show hustle. It’s just plain dumb. I’ve always been astounded that Omar Vizquel does this, routinely (as does Jeff Kent). Terribly lame stuff. It’s only a good idea if you can see a high-and-wide throw coming, and by sliding you avoid a “swipe” tag by the first baseman.

To say the least, the White Sox are embarrassed by Thomas’ monster season, enough to get him into the MVP conversation with Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Jermaine Dye and Justin Morneau. Here’s Thomas playing for a pittance, on a low-payroll team, probably helping to lead them into the postseason, and the high-paid world champions (who didn’t have Thomas last year, it should be noted) are struggling — at least by their high standards. Thomas could do huge damage to the White Sox’s playoff chances this weekend, and you know that nothing would please him more … On the subject of MVP, it was stunning to hear Ortiz throw a jab at Jeter, saying it’s easy for Jeter to rack up MVP-style numbers in the Yankee lineup, and “Come hit in this lineup, see how good you can be.” Wow, David, nothing like throwing a whole bunch of Sox hitters under the bus. Johnny Damon spoke for a lot of people when he told Yankee reporters, “I can’t believe David would say something like that. It doesn’t sound like him.”